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R E S E A R C H P A P E R

Spirituality, Religiousness, and Happiness in Children

Aged 8–12 Years

Mark D. Holder  Ben Coleman  Judi M. Wallace

Published online: 11 December 2008  Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Abstract   The relation between spirituality and happiness was assessed in 320 children

aged 8–12 from public and private (i.e., faith-based) schools. Children rated their own

spirituality using the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire and 11 items selected and

modified from the Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality

which reflected the children’s practices and beliefs. Children’s happiness was assessed

using self-reports based on the Oxford Happiness Scale short form, the Subjective Hap-

piness Scale, and a single-item measure. Parents also rated their children’s happiness.Children and parents rated the children’s temperament using the emotionality, activity, and

sociability temperament survey. Children’s spirituality, but not their religious practices

(e.g., attending church, praying, and meditating), was strongly linked to their happiness.

Children who were more spiritual were happier. Spirituality accounted for between 3 and

26% of the unique variance in children’s happiness depending on the measures. Tem-

perament was also a predictor of happiness, but spirituality remained a significant predictor

of happiness even after removing the variance associated with temperament. The personal

(i.e., meaning and value in one’s own life) and communal (quality and depth of inter-

personal relationships) domains of spirituality were particularly good predictors of chil-

dren’s happiness. These results parallel studies of adult happiness and suggest strategies to

enhance happiness in children.

Keywords   Happiness     Spirituality    Religion    Temperament   Children  

Well-being     Satisfaction

M. D. Holder (&) J. M. Wallace

J Happiness Stud (2010) 11:131–150

DOI 10.1007/s10902-008-9126-1

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1 Introduction

Theoretical approaches to understanding the processes that influence happiness include

both bottom–up and top–down formulations (Diener 1984; Diener et al. 1999). Bottom–up

formulations emphasize the role of external factors such as experience and demographics.Though studies often report that happiness is related to external factors (Stallings et al.

1997), the influence of many of these variables is modest (e.g., Argyle   1999; Campbell

et al.  1976). Therefore, top–down formulations, in which characteristics within the indi-

vidual are emphasized, have also been studied (Diener et al.  1999). Compared to external

characteristics, several internal characteristics account for more of the variability in hap-

piness. These internal characteristics include personality traits such as extroversion and

neuroticism (Cheng and Furnham   2001,   2003; Furnham and Brewin   1990; Hayes and

Joseph   2003; Hills and Argyle   2001a,   b; Neto   2001; Pavot et al.   1990), and variables

related to personality such as attributional stability (Cheng and Furnham 2001), emotional

stability (Hills and Argyle  2001a), loneliness (Neto 2001), locus of control (DeNeve and

Cooper 1998), and self esteem (Cheng and Furnham 2003; Furnham and Cheng 2000a, b;

Hills and Argyle 2001b). Research with children has paralleled the findings with adults and

adolescents, in showing that temperament is more strongly related to happiness than

demographic variables (Holder and Coleman  2008b).

Spirituality and religiousness are additional internal characteristics that have been

linked to happiness. Spirituality can be distinguished from religiousness. Spirituality refers

to an inner belief system that a person relies on for strength and comfort whereas reli-

giousness refers to institutional religious rituals, practices, and beliefs (Houskamp et al.

2004). Studies of spirituality and religiousness have generally reported modest positivecorrelations between these internal characteristics and subjective well-being including life

satisfaction (Kelley and Miller   2007; Zullig et al.   2006), and happiness (Argyle   2001;

Francis et al.   2000,   2003a; French and Joseph   1999). A meta-analysis of 56 studies

indicated that overall, religiousness and happiness are positively but weakly correlated

(r   =   .16) (Arygyle 2001). Based on a review of the literature on happiness, spirituality, and

religiousness, Francis et al. (2000) concluded that the domains of church attendance,

religious commitment, overall spirituality, satisfaction with church activities, religious

beliefs, and attitude toward Christianity, all positively correlate with happiness. Similarly,

six scales of religiousness (religious coping, congregational support, religious identity,

spirituality, religious practice, and religious belief) all positively correlated with happiness(Cohen 2002). Only the scale, knowledge of religion, did not substantially correlate with

happiness.

The relation between well-being and religiousness and spirituality has been observed in

various age groups including adolescents and the elderly. For example, a study of ado-

lescents, young adults, and older adults reported that people in all three age groups, who

considered themselves to be religious, were happier than people who did not consider

themselves to be religious (Francis et al.   2000). Pearce et al. (2003) found that middle

school students who attended church on a regular basis and students who rated themselves

as being spiritual, reported fewer depressive symptoms than students who did not attendchurch or did not think of themselves as being spiritual.

However, studies have not always reported a relation between happiness and spirituality

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studies of the relation between happiness and spirituality and religiousness may be limited

and produce inconsistent results because several of the questionnaires used only assess

Christian faith and there is no single widely accepted test of spirituality (Francis et al.

2003b; Lewis  2002; Lewis et al.  2000). Furthermore, how happiness is assessed may be

important. For example, in a review of the literature, Lewis (2002) found that researchutilizing the Oxford happiness inventory reported an association between happiness and

religiousness whereas research utilizing the depression-happiness scale did not.

Theories have suggested that spirituality and religiousness may promote happiness and

subjective well-being in several ways (Ellison   1991). For example, practicing religion

(e.g., attending church) may increase social integration and support. Additionally, the

development of an individual relationship with a god or divine being may promote hap-

piness by reducing stress and improving coping strategies. Furthermore, religiousness and

spirituality may provide meaning, coherence, and purpose in one’s life. Moreover,

adhering to a religious or spiritual belief, at least in adults, may enhance healthier lifestyle

choices.

Although research has been conducted on the relation between happiness and spiritu-

ality and religiousness in adults and adolescents, this relation has not been well-studied in

children. The present study investigated this relation in children. Children aged 8–12 years

were selected because they are old enough to identify and employ emotions, including

happiness, in multifaceted social arenas (Schultz et al.  2004). Additionally, children can

appreciate that different emotions, including happiness, are experienced at the same time,

and like adults, they can attribute causal relations to emotions (Denham   1998; Whitesell

and Harter  1989).

Spirituality and religiousness may promote happiness in children for similar reasons tothose that promote happiness in adults and adolescents. For example, spirituality may

increase social relations (Ellison 1991), and social relations are critical factors in adults’

happiness (e.g., see Lyubomirsky et al.   2005) and have been associated with children’s

happiness as well (Holder and Coleman  2008a). However, the factors associated with

happiness in children may differ from those in adolescents and adults. For example,

variables that are associated with well-being in adults, including job satisfaction (Tait et al.

1989), marriage (Headey et al.  1991), and spousal happiness (Stull  1988), are not appli-

cable to children. Additionally, the predictors of life satisfaction and happiness change

with age. For example, scores from tests at school predict life satisfaction for children in

Grade 2 but not in Grade 8 (Chang et al.  2003). Additionally, research suggested that menwith school-aged children defined their happiness in terms of their family life, but before

and after this phase of the family life cycle, they defined their happiness outside of the

family (Harry 1976). Therefore, though happiness may be related to spirituality and reli-

giousness in adolescents and adults, this relation may differ for children. By determining

the nature of this relation in children, we may better understand individual differences in

children’s happiness and identify strategies to enhance their happiness.

2 Method

2.1 Sample

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daily school curriculum. Students were given packets containing information letters,

consent forms, and questionnaires for their parents. Of the 476 (63%) packets returned, 359

parents consented to their children’s participation, 84 declined, and 33 questionnaires were

returned completed, but with no consent form. Of the 359 positive consents, 320 (89%)

children assented on test day, 13 (4%) declined, and 26 (7%) children were absent,resulting in a sample of 320 children (51% girls, and 49% boys) aged 8–12 years

( M   =  10.25 years, SD   =   .96 years), and their parents. The age and gender of children

were similar between the public and private schools.

2.2 Measurement

Spirituality was assessed in children using the Practices and Beliefs Scale which contained

items selected and adapted from the Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religious-

ness/Spirituality (BMMRS) developed by the Fetzer Institute (1999). The BMMRS

assesses multiple dimensions of spirituality and measures both traditional religiousness and

non-institutionally based spirituality (Idler et al.   2003). Additionally, the Spiritual Well-

Being Questionnaire (SWBQ) was used to assess children’s spirituality (Gomez and Fisher

2003). The current study used a multidimensional approach to investigate the relation

between spirituality and happiness as recommended by several researchers (Emmons 2006;

Fisher et al.  2000; Houskamp et al.  2004; Idler et al.  2003; Underwood and Teresi  2002).

Happiness was assessed using both self report measures and ratings by the children’s

parents. Additionally, to assess the strength of the relation between happiness and spiri-

tuality, the children’s temperament was also assessed. Temperament is widely recognized

as the forerunner of personality (Rothbart et al.   2000). Personality has been strongly andconsistently linked to adults’ happiness (e.g., Brebner et al.   1995; DeNeve and Cooper

1998) and though not studied extensively, temperament has been linked to children’s well-

being including satisfaction (Huebner 1991) and happiness (Holder and Coleman 2008b).

Given the strong relation between happiness and personality, many studies now seek to

determine whether variables of interest contribute to happiness beyond the influence of 

personality (e.g., Ciarrocchi and Deneke 2006; Demir and Weitekamp 2007).

Six questionnaires were administered. Three questionnaires assessed children’s happi-

ness: the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire short form, the subjective happiness scale, and

the Faces Scale. Two questionnaires assessed spirituality and religiousness: Spiritual Well-

Being Questionnaire, and the Practices and Beliefs Scale. One questionnaire assessedtemperament: Emotionality Activity and Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS). Parents

completed the EAS and the faces scale, while children completed all six questionnaires.

Likert-type scales were used when appropriate because children understand these scales

better than visual analogue scales even with explicit instruction (Shields et al.   2003).

Children prefer responding to questionnaires by filling in circles and having more as

opposed to fewer response options (Rebok et al.  2001), so questionnaires used circles and

more response options.

2.2.1 Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Short Form (Oxford Happiness Questionnaire)

This measure, developed by Hills and Argyle (2002), uses eight items to assess happiness

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consistency (e.g.,   a   =   .62) and short-term test-retest reliability (e.g.,   r   =   .69 after

2 weeks) (Cruise et al.  2006).

2.2.2 Subjective Happiness Scale

This measure, developed by Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999), assesses subjective happi-

ness from a global perspective and includes four items using a 7-point Likert-type scale

[e.g., ‘‘Compared to most of my peers, I consider myself:’’ 1 (less happy) to 7 (more

happy)]. With adults, this measure shows high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha

ranged from .79 to .94) and good test-retest reliability (e.g., after 1 month,   r   =   .90)

(Lyubomirsky and Lepper 1999). It is a reliable (a   =   .85) (Tkach and Lyubomirsky 2006)

measure of happiness, and shows convergent and discriminant validity (Lyubomirsky and

Lepper 1999). In order to adapt the questions to a Grade 4 reading level, questions 3 and 4

that originally read, ‘‘To what extent does this characterization describe you?’’ werechanged to, ‘‘How much does this sentence describe you?’’

2.2.3 Faces Scale

The faces scale is a single-item measure, depicting seven simple drawings of faces,

arranged in a horizontal line, that represent participants’ response options to the question:

‘‘Overall, how do you usually feel?’’ Participants marked the face that best represented

feelings ranging from ‘‘very unhappy’’ (depicted by a very down-turned mouth) to ‘‘very

happy’’ (depicted by a very up-turned mouth). Single-item measures of happiness arereliable, valid, and commonly used (Abdel-Khalek   2006; Harry  1976; Stull  1988; Swin-

yard et al.  2001). The faces scale is especially suitable for children because children as

young as 3 years perform best when recognizing and labeling emotions when emotions are

represented as schematic drawings as opposed to photographs, and they are best at labeling

happiness, followed by sadness (MacDonald et al.  1996).

Using the faces scale, children rated their own happiness, and parents rated their child’s

happiness. The use of reports by knowledgeable others (e.g., parents rating their children)

is reliable and valid means of assessing personality (Funder  1991) and happiness or well-

being (Lepper 1998). Furthermore, Holder and Coleman (2008b) showed good agreementbetween children’s self-reports and parent reports of their children using the faces scale.

2.2.4 Emotionality Activity and Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS)

This measure, developed by Buss and Plomin (1984), consists of 20 items using a 5-point

scale ranging from 1 (not very typical/characteristic) to 5 (very typical/characteristic).

There are five statements for each of the four domains: Emotionality (e.g., ‘‘tends to be

somewhat emotional’’), activity (e.g., ‘‘is always on the go’’), sociability (e.g., ‘‘prefers

playing with others rather than alone’’), and shyness (e.g., ‘‘tends to be shy’’). The EAS is

short and straightforward, is not affected by gender or age of the child being rated (Boer

and Westenberg 1994), and has been used extensively with clinical and community

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2.2.5 Practice and Belief Scale (PBS)

Eleven items were selected from the BMMRS which assesses spirituality and religiousness.

The BMMRS exhibits good reliability and validity, and normative data is available for

adult populations (Idler et al.  2003). However, some questions were eliminated that maynot have been appropriate for children. For example, the question ‘‘What is your current

religious preference?’’ was eliminated because parents often choose the religion for chil-

dren aged 8–12 years. Furthermore, the language of each item was modified from the

BMMRS so that they reflected a broader scope of spiritual beliefs and practices, and the

wording was simplified so that it could be easily understood by Grade 4 students (e.g., ‘‘I

desire to be closer to or in union with God’’ was changed to ‘‘I desire to be closer to a

higher power’’). Pretests of the PBS, using children not included in the present study,

confirmed that the children could understand the items. Children were required to respond

to each item using a 7-point Likert-type scale. For example, ‘‘I find strength and comfort in

my religion/spirituality’’ was rated from 1 (never) to 7 (very often). Three items from the

PBS reflected the children’s practice of their beliefs: (1) ‘‘How often do you go to a place

of worship such as a church?’’ (2) ‘‘How often do you pray or meditate privately outside of 

church or other place of worship?’’ and (3) ‘‘I read religious or spiritual books or maga-

zines.’’ Four items reflected the children’s belief in a higher power: (1) ‘‘I feel a higher

power’s presence’’ (2) ‘‘I believe in a higher power who watches over me’’ (3) ‘‘I feel a

higher power’s love for me’’ and (4) ‘‘I desire to be closer to a higher power.’’ Three items

reflected spirituality’s role in coping and everyday life: (1) ‘‘How often do you find

strength and comfort in your religion or spirituality?’’ (2) ‘‘When you are worried or have a

problem, how often do you depend on your religion or spirituality to help you?’’ and (3) ‘‘Itry hard to use my religious or spiritual beliefs in all parts of my life.’’ The final question

assessed overall self-perception of religiousness or spirituality: ‘‘Do you think of yourself 

as a religious or spiritual person?’’

2.2.6 Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ)

Spirituality was assessed in children using the SWBQ which was developed by Gomez and

Fisher (2003) and based on Fisher’s (1999) model of spiritual health. The SWBQ assesses

four dimensions of spirituality: personal (meaning and value in one’s own life); communal

(quality and depth of inter-personal relationships); environmental (sense of awe for nature);and transcendental (faith in and relationship with someone or something beyond the human

level). Research has indicated the SWBQ has high internal consistency, good convergent

and discriminant validity, and support for construct validity (Gomez and Fisher  2003).

3 Procedure

Permission was obtained from the school districts, school principals and teachers. Only

children whose parents gave consent were included. Before the start of the survey, children

were asked for their informed assent.

Children were given packets containing the faces scales and the EAS to take home to

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standardized explanation of the purpose of the study and were instructed to read each

question carefully, and to choose the response option that was most appropriate for them.

Children were told that the term ‘‘higher power’’ referred to something such as God,

Buddha, or universal power, in order to prevent children from interpreting the term as

referring to a parent or teacher.

3.1 Data Analysis

Four measures of children’s happiness were used in the regression analyses: (1) the

children’s ratings based on the faces scale (ChildOwnFace); (2) the parent’s ratings of their

child’s happiness (ParentChildFace); (3) the short form of the Oxford Happiness Ques-

tionnaire (Hills and Argyle   2002) completed by the children (ChildOHQ) and; (4) the

Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper   1999) completed by the children

(ChildSHS). The EAS (Buss and Plomin  1984) domains, the SWBQ (Gomez and Fisher

2003) domains, and the PBS were used as predictors of happiness.

The distributions of responses from the faces scales appeared to violate the assumption

of normality (ChildOwnFace: skewness   = -1.09, kurtosis   =  1.54; ParentChildFace:

skewness   = -.86, kurtosis   =   1.63). Distributions for both scales were best improved by

reflecting the ratings and computing natural logarithms (Tabachnick and Fidell   2001)

(ChildOwnFace: skewness   = -.14, kurtosis   =   .66; ParentChildFace: skewness   = -.49,

kurtosis   =   .49). These transformed measures were used in the analyses below.

Although 320 parents consented, 13 cases (i.e.,   N   =   307) were excluded from the

analyses because participants either incorrectly completed, or failed to complete, the

measures of happiness. Where appropriate, Bonferroni adjustments were used to setthe conservative experimenterwise error level at  p   B   .0125.

4 Results

4.1 Measures of Happiness, Gender, School, Temperament, and Spirituality

4.1.1 Measures of Happiness

For both children’s and parents’ ratings using the faces scale, at least 90% of the responses

were within the three happiest categories (see Table 1). These findings were consistent

with other studies that have used this faces scale as a measure of children’s happiness

(Holder and Coleman  2008a). Each of the four measures of happiness, (i.e., ChildOwn-

Face, ParentChildFace, ChildOHQ, and ChildSHS), were significantly correlated with each

other (see Table 2). Although these measures were correlated, the results did not indicate

multicollinearity (e.g., r   C   .70) or singularity (e.g., r   C   .90) (Tabachnick and Fidell 2001).

Similar to the faces scales, happiness ratings based on the subjective happiness scale and

the Oxford happiness questionnaire were relatively high on average (see Table  3).

4.1.2 Gender and School

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ratings of happiness than children in private schools (Wilk’s   =   .964,   F (4,300)   =  2.79,

 p\

.05), with significant differences between school ratings appearing on the ChildSHSand ChildOHQ measures. The interaction between gender and school was insignificant

(Wilk’s   =   .975,  F (4,300)   =  1.89,  P   =   .11) on all measures of happiness.

4.1.3 Temperament and Spirituality

Based on the EAS, the average ratings from the five-point scales across all four temper-

ament domains (see Table 3) ranged from 2.33 (SD   =  0.70) to 2.46 (SD   =   0.83). The

average scores on the SWBQ ranged from 3.27 (SD   =   1.06) to 3.85 (SD   =  0.63) on a

5-point scale, and on the PBS was 3.81 (SD   =  1.68) on a 7-point scale.

4.2 Correlations with Happiness

Pearson product-moment correlations and descriptive statistics were used to describe the

relations between the happiness measures and items taken from EAS, SWBQ, and PBS

(see Table 4). All spiritual/religiousness domains from the SWBQ and the total score from

the PBS were positively correlated with all four measures of happiness. For the SWBQ,

only the correlation between the transcendental domain and the ChildSHS was not sig-

nificant. The PBS was not significantly correlated with ParentChildFace, ChildSHS, and

ChildOHQ. Neither of the two items from the PBS that referred to the frequency of 

religious practice (‘‘How often do you go to a place of worship such as a church?’’ and

‘‘How often do you pray or meditate privately outside of church or other place of

Table 1   Percentage of respondents within each category of the Faces Scale

ChildOwnFace 0 0 3 7 19 47 24

ParentChildFace 0 0 1 5 25 57 12

 Note: Percentage of children’s self-ratings (ChildOwnFace), and parents’ ratings of their children

(ParentChildFace) in each of the seven response options on the faces scale

Table 2   Pearson product-moment correlations between the four measures of happiness

ChildOwnFace ParentChildFace ChildSHS

ParentChildFace .35* – –

ChildSHS .60* .33* –

ChildOHQ .44* .29* .46*

*  P\ .05; (2-tailed); ChildOwnFace, child’s own happiness rating on the faces scale; ParentChildFace,

parent’s subjective rating of their child’s happiness on the faces scale; ChildSHS, child’s own rating on the

subjective happiness scale; ChildOHQ, child’s own rating on the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire

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Table 3   Estimated means and standard errors (SE) of the happiness measures, temperament, and spiritu-

ality items

Questionnaire Private school Public school

Scale Female Male Female Male

Happiness measures

ChildOwnFace 1–7 5.89 (.18) 5.44 (.19) 5.94 (.08) 5.77 (.09)

ParentChildFace 1–7 5.82 (.15) 5.44 (.19) 5.71 (.07) 5.81 (.07)

ChildSHS 1–7 5.00 (.19) 4.95 (.20) 5.30 (.09) 5.32 (.09)

ChildOHQ 8–48 31.64 (1.06) 32.67 (1.26) 35.10 (.50) 34.66 (.49)

EAS

Shyness 1–5 2.42 (0.78) 2.31 (0.70) 2.51 (0.79) 2.31 (0.69)

Emotionality 1–5 2.56 (0.88) 2.56 (0.96) 2.55 (0.80) 2.31 (0.83)

Sociability 1–5 3.55 (0.57) 3.65 (0.50) 3.59 (0.58) 3.59 (0.54)Activity 1–5 3.54 (0.67) 3.59 (0.74) 3.65 (0.71) 3.73 (0.71)

SWBQ

Personal 1–5 3.79 (0.54) 3.90 (0.65) 3.90 (0.70) 3.76 (0.66)

Communal 1–5 3.71 (0.70) 3.71 (0.75) 4.00 (0.59) 3.76 (0.59)

Environmental 1–5 3.79 (0.81) 3.14 (0.85) 3.65 (0.78) 3.23 (0.87)

Transcendental 1–5 3.69 (0.85) 3.90 (0.60) 3.31 (1.01) 2.99 (1.10)

PBS 1–7 4.98 (1.18) 5.31 (0.93) 3.66 (1.61) 3.39 (1.68)

 Note: Questionnaires used include the Emotionality Activity Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS), the

Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ), and the Practices and Beliefs Scale (PBS). The four measuresof children’s happiness were the self-reports of children using the Faces Scale (ChildOwnFace), the parents’

ratings of their children’s happiness using the Faces Scale (ParentChildFace), the children’s ratings on the

Subjective Happiness Scale (ChildSHS), and the children’s ratings on the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire

short form (ChildOHQ). Response options ranges for the faces scales: 1–7, very unhappy to very happy;

ChildSHS: 1–7, not very happy to very happy; ChildOHQ: 1–6, strongly disagree to strongly agree; EAS:

1–5, not typical to very typical; SWBQ: 1–5, very low to very high; PBS: 1–7, never to very often; Child

gender: 0 female, 1 male; school: 0 private, 1 public

Table 4   Pearson product-moment correlations between happiness measures and predictors

Questionnaires Predictors ChildOwnFace ParentChildFace ChildSHS ChildOHQ

EAS Shyness   -.13*   -.32*   -.21*   -.15*

Emotionality   -.06*   -.38*   -.15*   -.21*

Sociability .09* .16* .18* .10

Activity .13* .27* .18* .15*

SWBQ Personal .44* .20* .38* .48*

Communal .45* .19* .34* .44*

Environmental .21* .11* .14* .28*

Transcendental .21* .12* .10 .16*

PBS .17 .05 .08 .10

*  P\ .05 (2-tailed) Questionnaires include the Emotionality Activity Sociability Temperament Survey

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4.3 Predictors of Happiness

4.3.1 Gender and School

The multiple regression analyses with four measures of happiness (aexperimenterwise   =  .0125)and the linear combination of gender and school predicted a significant amount of variance

( R2=  0.03) on ChildOHQ,   F (2, 304)   =  4.88,   p\ .0125, but not on ChildOwnFace,

ChildSHS, or ParentChildFace, F (2,304)\2.48, p[ .05. School predicted about 3% of the

variance in ChildOHQ (see Table  5). This regression suggested that where a child attends

school (private or public) and his or her gender were not strong predictors of the child’s

happiness.

4.3.2 Temperament 

EAS temperament items predicted significant variance on ParentChildFace, ChildSHS, and

ChildOHQ, F (4,302)[ 5.06, p\ .001, whereas none of the EAS items predicted variance

on ChildOwnFace,   F (4,302)   =  1.98,   p   =   .097. The combined effect of the EAS items

predicted 22.4% (ParentChildFace), 7.6% (ChildSHS), 6.3% (ChildOHQ), and 2.6%

(ChildOwnFace) of the variance in children’s happiness measures, respectively. The EAS

domains, shyness activity, and emotionality, were significant predictors of ParentChild-

Face variance, whereas emotionality was the only significant predictor of variance on

ChildSHS and ChildOHQ (see Table 5). Neither shyness nor activity showed a significant

relation with ChildSHS and ChildOHQ happiness ratings. Sociability was the only

Table 5   Standard regression coefficients (b) and semi-partials (sr2) results for children’s happiness with

temperament, gender, school, and spirituality items

ChildOwnFace ParentChildFace ChildSHS ChildOHQ

b   sr2 b   sr2 b   sr2 b   sr2

Gendera -.12 .01 .03 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00

School .05 .00 .04 .00 .12 .01 .18 .03*

Temperament

Shyness   -.08 .00   -.18 .02*   -.11 .00   -.06 .00

Emotionality   -.03 .00   -.32 .09*   -.12 .01*   -.19 .03*

Sociability   -.03 .00   -.06 .00   -.11 .00   -.05 .00

Activity   -.09 .00   -.13 .01*   -.07 .00   -.07 .00

Spirituality

Personal .30 .04* .14 .00 .34 .06* .38 .06*

Communal .32 .05* .10 .00 .21 .02* .25 .03*

Environmental   -.10 .00   -.03 .00   -.11 .00   -.01 .00

Transcendental   -.09 .00 .10 .00   -.16 .00   -.14 .00

Practice/belief .10 .00   -.08 .00 .07 .00 .03 .00

*  P\ .05. Four measures of happiness were used: ChildOwnFace, child’s own happiness rating on the

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temperament item that failed to predict variance on ParentChildFace, ChildSHS, or

ChildOHQ. In summary, emotionality, shyness, and activity were significant predictors of 

children’s happiness.

4.3.3 Spirituality and Religious Practice and Beliefs

The SWBQ and PBS predicted all four measures of children’s happiness,  F (5,301)[ 3.02,

 p\ .0125. These predictors combined accounted for 5%, 25%, 18%, and 27% of the

variance in ParentChildFace, ChildOwnFace, ChildSHS, and ChildOHQ, respectively.

However, the personal and communal domains were the only significant predictors of 

ChildOwnFace, ChildSHS, and ChildOHQ (see Table 5). The other spiritual domains

(i.e., environmental and transcendental) and the PBS were not significant predictors of 

children’s happiness.

4.4 Hierarchical Regressions

A hierarchical regression was used to test whether spirituality would predict happiness over

any variance that was explained by gender, school, and temperament. To determine

whether spirituality improves predictability of children’s happiness, hierarchical regres-

sions were performed with each happiness measure in several models. For each model

gender and school were entered into the analyses first, followed by the EAS domains, and

spirituality/religiousness items (PBS and SWBQ) were entered last.

4.4.1 ChildOwnFace

Beyond any variance explained by gender, school, and temperament, spirituality explained

22.5% of the shared variance in ChildOwnFace, F (5,295)   =  18.15, p\ .001 (see Table 6).

The personal domain explained 4.2% and the communal domain explained 4.7% of the

unique variance in ChildOwnFace. However, the unique variance explained by the envi-

ronmental, transcendental, and PBS domains were insignificant. Therefore, it appears that

beyond gender, school, and temperament, the personal domain (i.e., developing a sense of 

identity, self-awareness, joy in life, inner peace, and meaning in life) and the communal

domain (i.e., developing love for other people, forgiveness toward others, trust betweenindividuals, respect for others, and kindness towards other people) were important

predictors of children’s own happiness.

4.4.2 ParentChildFace

The regression model (see Table 6) shows that spirituality was not a significant predictor

of ParentChildFace variance,   F (5,295)   =  2.33,   p[ .0125. Neither PBS nor SWBQ

domains could explain more than 1% of the unique variance in ParentChildFace ratings.

However, temperament accounted for almost 20% of the variance in ParentChildFace

beyond any variance that was explained by gender and school,   F (4,300)   =  19.34,

p\ .001. That is, emotionality explained 9.1% of the unique variance in ParentChildFace

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a   r   c     h     i   c   a

     l   r   e   g   r   e   s   s     i   o   n   s     (     H     R     )     f   o   r   c     h     i     l     d   r   e   n     ’   s     h   a   p   p     i   n   e   s   s   w     i    t     h   g   e   n     d   e   r ,   s   c     h   o   o     l ,    t   e   m   p   e   r   a   m   e   n    t ,   a   n     d   s   p     i   r     i    t   u   a     l     i    t   y

     H     R

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   p   e   r   a   m   e   n    t

 .     2     2     8

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   - .     0

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   - .     0

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   - .     3

     2     6

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     S   o   c     i   a     l

 .     0

     0     7

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     S   o   c     i   a     l

   - .     0

     5     7

 .     0     0     2

     A   c    t     i   v     i    t   y

   - .     0

     7     5

 .     0     0     0

     A

   c    t     i   v     i    t   y

   - .     1

     1     7

 .     0     1     0     *

     3

     S   p     i   r     i    t   u   a     l     i    t   y

 .     2     7     0

 .     2     2     5     *

     3

     S   p     i   r

     i    t   u   a     l     i    t   y

 .     2     5     7

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 .     3

     0     4

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   - .     1

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t     i   n   u   e     d      H

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     P

     B     S

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 .     0     0     2

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4.4.3 ChildSHS 

The model (see Table 6) shows that spirituality items captured 15% of the shared variance

in ChildSHS, which was beyond any variance explained by temperament, gender, and

school,   F (5,295)   =  11.47,   p\ .001. The personal, communal, and transcendentaldomains, respectively explained 4.9%, 1.8%, and 1.2% of the unique variance in Child-

SHS, whereas environmental and PBS contributed less than 1% each to ChildSHS.

Emotionality was the only significant temperament domain in this model to predict unique

variance (sr 2 =   .012) on ChildSHS. The remaining temperament domains along with

gender and school items were not significant predictors of ChildSHS (P[ .08). Beyond the

contribution made by emotionality, the spirituality domains, except environmental, pre-

dicted children’s happiness. The transcendental domain (i.e., developing a personal

relation with a higher power, worship of the creator, oneness with a higher power, peace

with a higher power, and prayer life), along with the personal and communal domains,

predicted ChildSHS.

4.4.4 ChildOHQ

Spirituality explains almost 26% of the variance in ChildOHQ beyond what was explained

by temperament, gender, and school,  F (5,295)   =  22.65,  p\ .001 (see Table 6). Both the

personal and communal domains predicted a significant amount of variance (Dsr 2

=   .089)

in ChildOHQ. Again, it appears that children’s happiness was related to their spirituality,

particularly the development of their personal and communal domains. Furthermore,

emotionality captured 2.8% of the ChildOHQ variance, with no other significant temper-ament contributors ( p[ .05). Finally, school accounted for 1.6% of the variance in

ChildOHQ.

5 Discussion

The relation between happiness and spirituality and religiousness was assessed in 8–12

year old children. In general, children who indicated that they were more spiritual were

happier based on self-reports and reports by their parents. In particular, the personal (i.e.,

meaning and value in one’s own life) and communal (quality and depth of inter-personalrelationships) domains of spirituality were strong predictors of children’s happiness.

Spirituality accounted for 3–26% of the unique variance in children’s happiness depending

on the measures used. The strength of the relation is underscored by the finding that

spirituality was a strong predictor of happiness even after the variance in happiness

associated with temperament was removed. However, though spiritual beliefs were strong

predictors of happiness, religious practice (e.g., attending church, praying, and meditating)

were only weakly associated with children’s happiness.

The positive relation between spirituality and happiness reported here for children is

similar to that reported in studies of adults and adolescents. Argyle (2001) conducted a

meta-analysis of 56 studies with adults in the United States and found an average corre-

lation of .16 between overall spirituality or religiousness and happiness. Several studies

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spirituality contributed to well-being when age, gender, personality, and religious support

and practices were controlled for in an adult sample.

Cohen (2002) reported that when well-being was assessed with a single-item (i.e.,

asking participants to rate their life in general on how happy they were), no relation was

found between spirituality and well-being. However, when well-being was assessed withmultiple items, a relation was found between spirituality and well-being. The present study

measured happiness with a single and multiple item questionnaires, as well as with self and

other ratings. The use of happiness ratings by knowledgeable others (parents) has been

reported to be valid (Lepper 1998) and the use of multiple measures of well-being has been

advocated by other researchers (Diener et al.   1999). Though the measures of happiness

were all correlated and all showed a positive relation with spirituality, the measures were

not correlated at a level that indicated singularity. Furthermore, both the amount of vari-

ance in happiness that spirituality accounted for, and the subdomains of spirituality that

were unique predictors, differed across measures of children’s happiness. Future research

should address the theoretical and psychometric distinctions among these measures.

Francis et al. (2000) suggested that church attendance is a predictor of adults’ happiness.

A meta-analysis (Hackney and Sanders   2003) reported an overall correlation (r   =   .10)

between religious variables and mental health. However, they found that attending a formal

religious institution produced the weakest and only negative correlation. In the present

study, frequency of religious practice (i.e., how often the children attended a place of 

worship and how often they prayed or meditated) was not significantly correlated with any

of the four measures of happiness. One possible explanation for the lack of a strong relation

may be that parents, and not the children, determine the frequency of children’s religious

practice. Kelley and Miller (2007) reported church attendance did not predict life satis-faction for adolescents from different religious denominations as well as nonreligious self-

identifications. Ciarrocchi and Deneke (2005) also reported church attendance and other

religious activities did not contribute to well-being in graduate students. However, praying

was linked to well-being in adolescents (Francis et al.  2003b) possibly because adolescents

are free to choose how often and when they pray.

Only recently have researchers tried to make a distinction between spirituality and

religiousness as variables of interest in relation to health and well-being (see Berry 2005).

Although the present study did not ask children to make a distinction between spirituality

and religiousness, some of the items included (e.g., church attendance or praying) have

been used in studies of religiousness (see Bagley and Mallick  1997; Francis et al.  2003b;Pearce et al.  2003). Our finding of a strong relation between happiness and spirituality in

children, but not between happiness and frequency of religious practice, suggests that

spirituality and religious practice can be empirically separated. This separation supports the

idea that these constructs are independent and indicates that research should consider them

separately. In the case of children, it seems that spirituality, but not religious practice,

contributes to their happiness.

Research reports that the relation between spirituality and religiousness, and happiness

and subjective well-being, increases with age for adults (Ellison   1991; Ferriss   2002).

Therefore, it is somewhat surprising that the relation between happiness and spiritualityreported in the present study with children was stronger than that typically reported in

adults (see Hackney and Sanders 2003). Perhaps the stronger relation we observed in

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(e.g., Lewis et al.   2000). Though the current research was restricted to a sample drawn

from a primarily (though not exclusively) Christian population, many Christian denomi-

nations were represented.

In addition to a strong relation between happiness and spirituality, the present research

found a relation between happiness and temperament in children. Research with adultsconsistently reports that extraversion is strongly positively correlated with happiness and

neuroticism is strongly negatively correlated with happiness (Furnham and Brewin  1990;

Furnham and Cheng 2000b; Hills and Argyle 2001b; Pavot et al.  1990). Buss and Plomin

(1984) suggested that high levels of extraversion in adults are akin to high degrees of 

sociability and low degrees of shyness in children. Similar to the adult literature, we found

that high levels of sociability and low levels of shyness are associated with high levels of 

happiness. Furthermore, Buss and Plomin suggested that high levels of neuroticism in

adults are akin to high degrees of emotionality in children. Similarly, in the present study

emotionality was negatively correlated with all happiness measures.

5.1 Limitations

In the present study, the Oxford happiness questionnaire and the spiritual well-being

questionnaire were used. Both questionnaires are designed, in part, to assess meaning and

purpose in one’s life which may have artificially inflated the observed relation between

spirituality and happiness (see Kashdan  2004). However, the relation was also observed

when the faces scale was completed by the children and by their parents. This measure was

not designed to assess personal meaning and, at least on the surface, does not assess it.

Therefore the strong relation between spirituality and happiness does not rely on self-reports or measures of happiness that intentionally measure personal meaning. Nonethe-

less, the use of these questionnaires was also limited because of the lack of psychometric

data when using children.

The present study used multiple measures of happiness and spirituality, and found a

strong relation between them. However, the sample of children was drawn from a popu-

lation that was predominantly Caucasian and Christian. Cohen (2002) found that

spirituality was related to well-being in protestants and catholics but not Jews. This finding

indicates that the relation between spirituality and happiness needs to be investigated

across different religious and ethnic groups. However, Abdel-Khalek (2007) investigated

the relation between religiosity and happiness in a group of Kuwaiti Muslims and reportedthat 6.7% of the happiness variance was accounted for by religiosity in males and 7.5% in

females. Though the sample consisted of adolescents not children, and emphasized reli-

giosity and not spirituality, the results suggest that a positive relation between spirituality

and happiness might exist across different religious groups of children.

5.2 Implications

Researchers have identified several ways in which spirituality may promote subjective

well-being (Ellison   1991; Worthington et al.   1996). Many of these ways may enhancewell-being by increasing personal meaning in one’s life. For example, spirituality may

produce a sense of meaning that is worth living or dying for (Spilka et al. 1985) and

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the finding that after controlling for demographic variables and religiousness, meaning in

life was related to lower levels of depression and risk-taking behaviors in adolescents who

reported higher levels of spiritual well-being (Cotton et al. 2005). Furthermore, meaning in

life was strongly correlated with happiness in both Japanese and American samples of 

young adults (Steger et al.   2008). The present study is consistent with the idea thatspirituality is associated with children’s happiness because spirituality is associated with

increased personal meaning. In support of this idea, the two spiritual domains most

strongly associated with children’s happiness were the personal and communal which are

related to personal meaning and one’s relationships with others.

Enhancing personal meaning may be a key factor in the relation between spirituality and

happiness, as experimental work indicates that strategies that enhance personal meaning

promote happiness. For example, expressing kindness toward others may increase personal

meaning and explicitly recording one’s acts of kindness increases one’s happiness (Otake

et al. 2006). Furthermore, acts of altruism and volunteering, which may increase personal

meaning, are associated with enhanced well-being including happiness (see Keyes and

Waterman 2003; Post  2005).

If spirituality enhances happiness by increasing personal meaning, this may suggest

strategies to enhance happiness. For example, strategies aimed at enhancing personal

meaning in children’s lives may promote happiness. Future studies could have children

engage in activities that might promote personal meaning. For example, children might

volunteer to help others or record their contributions to the community in a journal. Then

changes in happiness and personal meaning before and after these activities could be

compared. If personal meaning is critical to happiness, one might see that these activities

particularly enhanced happiness for those children who showed increases in personalmeaning.

Acknowledgments   Preparation of this article was supported by grants from the Michael Smith Foundation

for Health Research, and UBC Okanagan, awarded to Mark Holder. We are grateful to Andrea Klassen for

her expert help with the data collection and the Methods section of this paper.

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